4x4 Rally dominated by Isuzu

Isuzu D-Max driver Lohitt Urs put in a masterful drive in the last stage of the recent AAM Malaysian 4x4 Rally Championship to record his second win in the championship. The win puts Lohitt in a commanding position to take his first international rally title as he has established a 10-point lead over defending champion William Mei with one round left in the championship.
 
“I am very happy to have been able to get this win. Everyone had a very difficult day today and to have won in the last stage is really satisfying. The D-Max was absolutely fantastic… its performance kept us on pace throughout the event and we managed to push it even harder in the last stage,” said Lohitt, who came from India to participate.
                                                 
Driving a similar vehicle, Chong Wee Siang was the early pacesetter, easily winning both the opening day’s stages run near the Sepang F1 circuit. He was pursued by a trio of Isuzu drivers including Lohitt, Mei and Teoh Kok Seng who was in an Isuzu Invader.  
 
Mitsubishi drivers were expected to present a challenge in this round but the leading vehicle driven by Lim Seng Hai suffered a broken intercooler hose early in the event. He had to crawl through SS2, losing some 8 minutes to the leaders and effectively dropping him out of contention. 
 
With rain falling heavily during the night, SS3 the next morning turned out to be a nightmare stage for the crews. The 40-km stage near Rantau, Negeri Sembilan, saw nearly all the crews going off the road at one point or other.
 
“The stage was extremely slippery and narrow. There were many tricky junctions and once you made a mistake, it could be terminal,” said William Mei who himself had two unexpected excursions into the many ditches in the stage.
 
Lohitt too had a time-consuming encounter with the undergrowth. “We went wide in one of the corners and ended up sliding down a slippery slope. Thankfully, a tree stopped us from going all the way down the hill! It looked like our rally was over then as we were there for a good 10 minutes trying to extricate ourselves. Eventually, we decided to try using the Touch-On-The-Fly to select 4L and charged our way back onto the road,” said Lohitt.
 
Lim, who was now suffering suspension problems, and teammate Eric Law also had their excursions off the road and it was a challenge just to extricate themselves and get to the finish line. Lohitt, despite almost giving up, emerged from the stage in the quickest time of one hour 20:59, marginally quicker than Chong who despite not going off the road suffered numerous navigational errors.
 
Lohitt was 2:19 behind the Johor-based team going into the final stage and at 45 kms, the longest stage of the event, it was a race between the pair as third-placed Teoh was a further 7 minutes back. The Indian driver put in a determined charge and the reward was sweet victory with a winning margin of 1 minute 35 seconds. 
   

Older Invader model demonstrated Isuzu toughness and capability in 'nightmare' conditions

The affable Chong took the loss in his stride. “Second is really not too bad. The win will come one day so I will just bide my time. We made some mistakes today. The roads were tricky and we took some wrong turns so we lost a lot of time. But it’s OK. We drove well throughout the event and that’s more important to me. The car was also fantastic. The D-Max did not give us any problems at all and the performance was very good. We clearly had the fastest car in the field but more importantly, the car was tough and took the rough roads well,” said Chong.
 
In third place was a surprised Teoh who brought home the older Isuzu Invader which did not have the higher power output of the D-Max that dominated the field including fourth-placed Mei who had the services of Thai co-driver Visut Sukosi standing in for Jagdev Singh who had other commitments. Mei was unlucky to have lost a significant amount of time in SS3 when he went off the road in a slippery grassy corner. “Some of these corners were incredibly tricky. They look wide but once you get off-line, the ditches just suck you in,” he said. 
 

With the winner’s circle dominated by Isuzu vehicles, it was a proud day for CEO of Isuzu Malaysia Takashi Hata who said that the clean sweep proved the superior engineering and performance of the vehicles.
 
“The immensely tough nature of 4x4 rallies demands that vehicles are engineered beyond the expectations of the ordinary motorist. For a vehicle to complete the race is already an achievement. For all our cars to beat the rest in the competition, it is a feat of engineering excellence!” said Hata.
 
To know more about the Isuzu D-Max and the nearest dealer to test-drive one, click here.
 
Looking for secondhand pick-ups to join the 4x4 rally? Check the MTM Database for advertisements, updated weekly.
 
If you are planning to buy a new D-Max, you probably have to sell off your existing vehicle. To find a buyer fast, advertise in Motor Trader, Malaysia’s most widely-read weekly auto classifieds magazine. Click here for a form to submit your advertisement booking online.